Second chances
by Envious sky
Summary: Getting a second chance never means that all will go how you want it,in fact, everything can go to hell just as easily as it did the first time round. ShikiXNeku
1. broken hearts

** I** **got the world ends with you for christmas, and got addicted, so much so it over took ff7 as my current obssession, my mind has been in shibuya since. which is bad because it means I have no desire to finish writing my darling oneshot (melancholy lies) because I loved twewy so much I needed to write a fanfic for it. yes NEEDED. so I created this so i can get back to writing my darling oneshot ( which you should read when i put it up here, cause it's damn awesone) but anyway, enjoy this story, cause I love this one too. Some parts are better than others because i was having my daily dose of evanescense, which makes me write better.**

**Disclaimer: Of course I own this, no just kidding, i will when I steal the legal rights that say I own it though, no just kidding again, i don't think thats possible for me to do.**

**Chapter 1: Broken hearts.**

* * *

><p>Neku listened as another song began playing, closing his eyes and listening closely. He didn't listen to music as much as he used to. It had always been an attempt to ignore people, but he didn't do that anymore, Why would he now?<p>

He had great friends and a good life, being such a loner wasn't a good way to pass time. He only listened to music in the times when he wasn't feeling the best or if he was unbeliveable bored and had nothing else to do.

Today he was stuck waiting. Shiki had wanted to spend the day with him, but before that she had something to do with Eri. So Neku had to wait until it was done. He had no choice but to wait because there was nothing else to do. Rhyme and Beat were off somewhere doing something, he wasn't sure but he decided to let them stay by themselves for today.

He'd been standing in front of Hachiko for around an hour, Shiki had taken longer than he thought she would. maybe something happened. He wasn't all that concerned, he didn't want to know much about girls matters. They never made much sense. Boys were not made to make sense out of them.

"Neku!"

Finally, Neku had gotten extremely bored standing in that same spot. He walked over to where Shiki was calling him.

He noticed she was wearing a dress he hadn't seen her wear before,

"That new?" He asked,

"Hmm?" Shiki looked down to the Blue fabric of the dress, "Yeah, Eri was ranting on about how good it would look on me and sort of forced me to buy it"

"Forced you?" What kind of friend forces you to buy stuff.

"Not really, I like it too, it was a bargin as well. So it doesn't matter"

It had been three years since the reaper game. Neku was almost eighteen, same as Shiki and Beat. Life was pretty normal. Different from what it had been, but still what is considered as normal. Neku wasn't such an anti-social person as he once had been, he spent as much time as he could with his friends. Shiki was still making clothes with Eri, She'd improved on the designing part of it, but still wasn't as good as her. but it didn't matter, she was better at the other things. Beat still wasn't very smart, But he was doing good at other stuff anyway. Rhyme would soon be starting her first year of high school. She was actually quite smart, unlike her brother. Apparently the other day she'd been told by a boy that: 'At least now your not going to be mistaked for a boy'. Was that a compliment or an insult? She didn't say who he was, But Neku had an idea of someone that might say something weird like that. So all in all they were having a rather normal life. The only thing that could be considered weird would have to be that from time to time they talked to Shibuya's composer, yes that was definately the strangest part. Neku had things that he would never forgive Joshua for, but still, he trusted him. But he didn't know whether he could still consider him a friend, it was a little complicated.

That day Neku and Shiki spent the day talking and walking around Shibuya. They didn't have much to do, so the day was spent having random pointless conversations and window shopping. Neku dumbly didn't notice that Shiki had new glasses until she mentioned how a guy had knocked her over and the lenses shattered and the frame was damaged badly. The new ones were square with a red frame, they didn't look as geeky as the old ones, Eri had chosen them for her. They looked better, And apparently Shiki needed new glasses anyway because she needed a new perscription, Neku didn't even know what she meant by that. Shiki's hair was longer now too, She looked kinda pretty with her hair at that length.

They ran into Beat and Rhyme in one of the less crowded parts of Shibuya, Beat was trying out some new tricks on his skateboard. Rhyme was just watching. It was a strange sight seeing Rhyme in a skirt, she would only wear one at school ,other than that she was in pants or shorts. Her mum had been buying her more girlish clothes and she was being forced to wear them. Not many mums like their daughters looking like sons. She wasn't bothered much having to wear clothes like she was wearing now, but she prefered what she usually wore over a skirt.

The conversation that Rhyme and Shiki were having was disrupted by a loud crashing sound, which without looking it was already obvious that Beat had stacked.

"you alright?" Rhyme dashed over to him, She tried bending over but couldn't from her skirt going too far up her legs, Which she had to quickly fix up.

"Damn, still can't do that move" Beat began complaining. Nobody had been looking when he stacked so nobody knew what he was complaining about.

"Well practice makes perfect, you just have to keep trying" Rhyme tried encouraging him.

"I've done it so much and i'm still failing, Damn" He kept on.

Rhyme still tried getting him out of his annoyed mood, Shiki was helping her.

Neku's mind was off in another place, he was thinking about other things that had nothing to do with what was going on now. Shiki looked back at him and took notice of how he was blankly staring.

"Hey earth to Neku, you alright?"

"huh?" His thoughts were cut short, "um, I'm sorry I think I just went into a trance"

"little stupid" She giggled, "what was going round your head just then?"

Yeah, what was going round my head, Crap how did I forget it that fast.

"I just forgot?" God that confused him.

"Thats pretty dumb" She turned back to helping Rhyme with encouraging Beat so he wouldn't keep on complaining about his constant failing on a particular move.

What the hell was I thinking about, how did I forget it so fast? Neku was wondering. Shiki's right, that is real stupid.

His thoughts were cut short again by Shiki when she grabbed onto his arm, with a grin she joked "mission accomplished" Looking back Neku could see Beat getting back on his skateboard.

"Come on I wanna go somewhere else." She pulled him along, With a wave to Rhyme they left. What was with that funny smile she just gave us? What's she thinking?

* * *

><p>Neku and Shiki grabbed lunch at a fast food restuarant and ate it outside. half way through the meal Neku had to mention,<p>

"Did you notice that weird way Rhyme was smiling, she was thinking something weird"

"Rhyme? Yeah I noticed it, I asked why before we left."

"What she say" Neku questioned.

"Something about that 'she knows something that the people it's about don't even know' "

"That doesn't sound like something she'd say" Neku mentioned.

"She got the way she said it from someone else, but she was already aware of whatever the 'something' is"

"Real hard to guess who 'someone else' is" Neku mumbled.

"Yeah, got that right" Shiki agreed.

Neku was noticing how Shiki was looking more happier than usual. He wondered what was up with that. But he didn't ask why just yet.

"So what was the thing that you and Eri were doing before you came to see me?"

"What we were doing? didn't I mention about a certain thing we were doing a couple of days ago?" She asked back.

"Must have drowned out" He emitted.

"Meanie" she wacked his hand,

"ow, what was that for?"

"What you think?" She laughed.

"I did something stupid? anyway, what was the thing?" He was curious about that now.

"Something awesome" She giggled happily.

"And what is that?"

"organising certain stuff connected to how after graduation we're going on a trip to Europe"

How the crap did I miss her saying that?

"Really?" Neku exclaimed a litlle surprised.

"Why would I kid about a thing like that?" Shiki laughed.

"I can find no proper reason why some one would."

"Course you can't"

Shiki had such a bright feeling around her, the trip didn't see to be all the news.

"So how long after graduation is trip?"

"About two weeks" She smiled.

" So in a months time you and Eri are going to be in Europe?"

"Pretty much" Shiki was looking really happy at the moment.

It was nice when Shiki was actually in a good mood. Not like she was constantly in a bad one, but from the amount of times she got bullied she did get sad a lot. Why do people have to be so judgemental over appearances? She wasn't even ugly, she just had glasses. In Neku's mind he really couldn't see that as a actually reason for someone to be bullied. Luckily she was spared from it getting too bad, at least she followed the trends. Neku didn't give a damn about them, and had people wasting their time giving him insults for it, insults which had nothing to do with their reasons. Shiki and Eri would only joke about it, they didn't care what he thought about clothes, but found his outdated things an easy thing to make a joke out of. They didn't mean anything mean by it, it was only when they were bored would they waste time on such things.

"I just remembered that one of mr mews stiches has come loose, I need to fix it before it gets worse" Shiki started mumbling, changing the subject.

"The pig?" Neku asked,

He recieved a look which cleary read 'you idiot'

"He's a cat neku"

"pig, cat, no big diffrerence"

"Yes there is" Shiki face palmed. "You want me to show you what a pig is?"

"And what are you meaning by that?"

"I'll show you later"

What is she talking about?

* * *

><p>A couple days later, after school they had decided to go see a movie together with Beat and Rhyme. Neku was the third one to get there, Shiki was late. They spotted her walking with Eri, who they guessed was forcing Shiki to let her go too, which she did constantly.<p>

Rhyme mumbled that Shiki was holding something in her hands to Beat, Neku didn't hear it, and only relised she had been holding something when that thing hit him in the face.

It knocked him over as he hadn't expected it, When he picked up the thing he found out that it was a doll, of a pig. Looking up Shiki was standing over him.

"And that's what a pig looks like, Nothing like mr mew at all right?"

Oh, thats what she meant yesturday.

"Can you please stop calling him a pig now?"

"Why does it matter in the first place?" Good point.

"Because Mr mew is a cat" She complained, "i'm getting annoyed by the amount of times you call him a pig"

Neku got back up and went to hand the plush toy back to Shiki, but she refused it back,

"No you can keep it, It can remind you what a pig looks like"

Neku was beginning to think Shiki had gone a little crazy, what was the point being all caught up on a pig? He had to stop thinking for a second as he relised the others were already leaving.

When he caught back up Eri came up to him and whispered,

"Just saying but i'm the one that dared her to hit you with it, but I didn't think she'd actually do it." she laughed then went back to walking side by side with Shiki. And Neku was stuck with the random pig toy, Great idea, start calling it a cat.

* * *

><p>The movie they had been planning to watch, had been sold out by the time they got there. So, to Shiki's dismay, They chose to watch one of the only other good movies there, which happened to be a horror movie. Oh joy.<p>

Beat laughed the whole time, Rhyme was thinking about how the failures the victims had that led to a murder, could have been easily changed so they survived. Neku was quitely laughing at such failures. Eri was getting confused at the characters stupidity. And Shiki, well she was just plainly terrified, well it's not a horror movie for nothing, someones has to be scared or it must have been a total waste of money. She was sitting there horrified and mumbling to herself the entire time.

'why are japanese horror movies so scary?, I wish I wasn't japanese no more'

'How is this funny to them? they've gone insane, oh crap I'm surrounded bu crazy people'

'End now you evil movie, why am I even watching this?'

Shiki's continueous muttering caught Neku's attention, Peeking over to her seat he saw how freaked out she was getting.

"Are you alright?" She looked damn terrified.

"Oh of course i'm alright Neku, Currently I can't breathe, When I blink I see a phantom on the back of my eyelids, and I'm scared that when I leave A ghastly grim reaper is going to hunt me down with a literally bloody scythe, So how alright do I sound?"

"Absolutely terrified" He concluded.

"I'm stupid aren't I?" She asked, going back into her little 'i'm stupid' mood. God she needed some more self confidence.

"It's a horror movie, your surposed to be scared"

"but your not scared" She whispered sadly.

"Not everyone gets scared, but someone always does, trust me 'bout half the people here are going to be having some horrid nightmares tonight" He comforted her.

"Anyway" He added in " You know that a reaper doesn't look anything like that creepy black cloak guy"

"Neku!" She half laughed giving him a hit on the arm.

If it wasn't for Beat and his obnoixous laughing one of the others would have noticed their conversation, And maybe Shiki and Neku would have noticed Eri and Rhyme Laughing after Neku got hit, mumbling about them having a 'lovers quarrell' "

* * *

><p>After the movies Eri and Rhyme were continuing their conversation but now switched to talking about the characters failures,<p>

"why would you even go in there, I mean seriously, choosing between a people packed street and an abandoned house? Come on"

"That's not even the dumbest part! Usagi had a perfect chance to kill the reaper, But she didn't! what reason could there be not to?"

"I knew from the start that Yuki would do it, she was awesome from the beggining, shame all the others died"

"well that's a horror movie for you"

Shiki was staring at them obviously confused how they enjoyed it.

"Wow, not only were they not scared, but they predicted how it would end, I am stupid" Shiki grumbled.

"Your not stupid,everyone gets scared from a horror movie sometime in their life"

"have you been?" She asked curiously,

"My parents made me watch one when I was three, Something about a dragon that reminded me of godzilla, called top threat was rippping people apart, Had nightmares about him for the rest of the year, no joke"

"What kind of parents make a three year watch a horror movie?" Shiki exclaimed in confusion.

"Well mine did repeatively"

"Mine did worse when I was three, you can shut up now" rhyme called out from in front of them, Speaking much unlike her usual way of speaking.

"Hey that was rude, don't interupt them" Eri went off at her, before bursting out into a fit of laughter.

"Whats so funny?" Shiki questioned her, "You've been laughing way more than usual, it's getting weird"

Neku had noticed that too, Eri seemed to be thinking about something strange, which in turn was making her laugh heaps, much more than the amount she already did. She had some inside joke of some kind, which for some reason Rhyme knew it too.

"Never mind" She chukled, Rhyme gave her a funny look, But then walked closer too Beat, who was still going on about all the action scenes,

"And then when Yuki stole his scythe and"

"Enough, we all knew what happened you don't have to keep going on about it" Rhyme stopped him, "Now come on we have to get home before we get in trouble"

Rhyme waved to the others and pulled Beat along with her in the direction of their house. Eri turned back from waving and gave Shiki and Neku a smile,

"Well I should be going too, Byes" Giving a small wave before skipping off.

"Eri! I don't want to have to go home alone!"

But Eri had gone too far away already to have heard that, leaving an angry Shiki behind.

"I can take you home" Neku walked up next to her.

"Thanks, but I have a feeling my parents might be angry with me if they found out that I walked home with a guy" Shiki murmured.

"They know that we're just friends don't they?" Neku asked,

"Yeah" Shiki replied "But still, you know how parents are"

"Not really, my parents are rather neglectful, they wouldn't care much" Neku confessed.

"Really? That's not nice" Shiki responded.

"Tell me about it"

Shiki thought for a moment, before saying anything more.

"I guess my parents wouldn't really go off at me for walking home with a boy. They know that we're just friends"

"Fine then, just one more question" He piped up,

"And what is that?"

"Do I really have to keep this pig?"

Neku held up the pig plushy which he'd been stuck holding the whole time, shiki gave him a grin and a quite laugh, before announcing,

"Yes you have to keep it, I'm not taking it back" She giggled a little.

"So I have to keep this cat"

Utter silence was her response, Before cracking out laughing, Neku laughed himself, he got the perfect reaction from his joke.

'You idiot it's a pig!" She got out through all the laughs.

"Hmmm, Personally I think it looks like a cat" He looked down at it.

"Stop being stupid Neku, you know it's a pig" Shiki was still in a laughing fit.

"I'm not stupid, how dare you say that" He joked around some more.

"Stop it, I can't breathe" Shiki waved her arms in front, regaining her breath.

Neku smiled before begining to walk off,

"You don't want to be left behind do you?" He called out, Shiki ran to catch up with him.

* * *

><p>Shibuya's street were near empty, they were almost all alone walking through the shadowly streets. A person would pass them everynow and then, but it was nothing compared to the usual in the daytime.<p>

"This place is more empty than usual eh?" Shiki began. "But it must still be crowded at the scramble"

"Yeah, that place is never without a bunch of people" Neku agreed.

It was a pain making out where things were, darkness was covering half the place.

"I think we're closer to my house right now"

"So I still have walk part way alone?" Shiki whinned

"Don't worry, I'll still go with you all the way, I can just walk back here afterwards."

"Thanks Neku" Shiki thanked him,

"Don't want to leave you alone when your scared about the grim reaper going after you" He joked ruining the niceness of the moment.

"Hey, that's not very funny?"

"I know, It got in my head and I was really tempted to say it, sorry" He apologised.

"Don't say something like that again, it's mean"

'Because of how stupid it sounds?"

"Yes because it's stupid"

"You should stop putting yourself down, I thought you got past all that stuff" Neku was getting sick of that bad habit she had. Most time she went on about things she thought she was bad at or starting thinking about how stupid she is, it really wasn't true.

"I try not too, really" Shiki whispered quitely, "But it keeps coming out"

"You really should try harder, There's nothing wrong with you, You underestimate yourself so much" he tried reassuring her"

Shiki looked up at him, "You really think that?" She asked,

"course I do"

"thanks"

Their conversation was interupted when a man rushed out of no where and knocked into Shiki but kept running, she was about to fall but Neku caught her at the last second. Her glasses however slipped off her face and hit the ground.

"Ah oh no!" Shiki picked them back up and inspected them, "They're crooked, aren't they?"

Neku looked at the frames, it was hard to see good in the darkness, but he forced his eyes to make out the glasses properly.

"Looks that way"

"Crap, I just got these, I'm going to be in so much trouble" Shiki began panicking.

"How much were they?"

"$190, expensive aren't they?"

"yeah" He was slightly shocked, he was aware about glasses being expensive, but that just seemed stupid.

He had to stop thinking about stupid prices when he noticed that Shiki seemed, from what he could make out, looking even more scared. For god's sake.

"Um, Neku?" She started,

He took a guess where she was going with this,

"Yeah?"

"Your house is only about a block away right?" She asked, even though she must have already known the answer already.

Mental facepalm.

"Are you so terrified now that your too scared to go a couple more blocks to your house?"

Bullseye.

"Hey don't put it that why" She complained right off,

"I'm guessing I got it right?" He chuckled.

"Oh come on, I can barely see anyway, I can't fix the frames in the dark"

She had a good point, it would be mean to make her have to keep walking when she was having even more trouble seeing and she was plainly still scared as all hell (even if she wouldn't admit to it)

"Fine, you can stay at my house for awhile"

"Thanks, your parents wont have a problem with me being there will they?" She questioned, just a little curious about it.

"My parents would not be home, so I wouldn't know"

'What? Why?" she asked now.

"Because they are visiting my mum's sister, they won't be back for a week"

"And they left you behind?"

"Yeah, pretty much" He shrugged.

"Wow, your parents are neglectful"

* * *

><p>Neku took a key from his pocket and unlocked the door, He entered and Shki followed behind him. she'd only been here a couple times before, neither of them went to each others much. Last time Shiki was here Neku's parents came home and went into some weird suspicous parents mode. It got creepy, which was when she decided she didn't like them very much. At least it wasn't like the time she had gone over to Rhyme's and beat's house and her mum went extremely over controlling. That was scary, And apprently if Rhyme cuts her hair she will get grounded.<p>

Shiki took a seat on the couch and began straightning out her frames without much luck. She could get them back in place, and while she was doing so she spotted scratches on one of the lenses.

"Damn it, how did one fall do this to them, you'd think they were stronger"

Neku stood in front of her, looking down as she tried attempting to fix her screwed up glasses.

"Failing I take it?"

She glanced up and gave him a look,

"Yeah, Failing"

Neku sat down next to her, still watching her failings.

"So what exactly are your eye problems?"

She stopped her attepts and looked back at him,

"Why do you want to know that?"

"I don't really know, just asking" He said plainly.

"I'm short sighted in my left eye, a bit in my right eye, but it's not as bad"

His look changed after she said it, which was confusing for her because he didn't really have a reason to be confused or something similar at the moment.

"What?"

"Just thinking, if your sight isn't really all that bad, then when you were complaning that you couldn't see before, was that a lie because in truth you were really just extremely scared that a grim reaper was going to pop out of nowhere and kill you?"

Bullseye again.

"N..no! Don't be stupid!"

Definately a bulleye.

"The faster someone denies something the more likely it's true"

"Now where did you hear that from?" She sounded angry, but she was really embarassed.

"Because when people lie they answer right away, like you just did" He gave an evil smile.

Which in turn she hit him with a couch cushion to shut him up.

"Now your just being mean!"

Neku put the cushion back in place, before laughing some more. Shiki was still glaring at him.

"Stop making fun of me for getting scared at a horror movie, like you said, everyone does sometime, you know it's not funny"

Knowing that doesn't make it any less easier to stop laughing.

"Most people also get tempted to make a joke over it, sorry"

"It's still annoying me"

Shiki fiddled with her glasses' frames some more, giving them a look she put them on, finding them crooked still she began trying to fix them again.

"Not having much succsess?" Neku looked down at them.

"It's not exactly easy when my sight isn't best"

"is it annoying?"

"Hmm," she looked to the side, "Annoying?"

"Having to wear glasses to see right"

"Sometimes, but it's alright, my sight is much better than many others. It's only one eye thats bad"

"So not really?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Why do you think people get bullied so much for having glasses?"

Shiki gave him a funny look for asking what was already obvious.

"Because having glasses is stereotipical for nerds. So when people see someone with them, they will think that they're a nerd" She explained simply.

"Which I know is stupid, anyone with glasses do especially, even when they are the stereotype. I'm dumb and I have them, so that proves the stereotype wrong." She added in.

"Your not stupid" Neku layed back on the couch, "You get better grades than I do."

Shiki had the most Irritating habit of saying such bad things about herself, saying she was stupid, when she was a little above average. Saying she was bad at things, when she was better than so many others.

"Stop saying that, I am stupid!"

"No your not, what are you going on about"

Neku leaned more closer. Shiki looked at him for a second before getting embarrassed over their close proximity. jumping up off the couch with a blush on her face.

"Stop it!" She yelled. Angry now, over stupid things. secretly hiding her embarrssement.

Neku got up after her, she didn't like the look he gave her.

"Whats wrong with what I'm saying, I'm saying the truth, your not stupid, why do you keep telling yourself that you are?" He snapped.

"Because I am!" she strongly believed that it was a fact.

Neku was getting sick of her acting this way, he steped closer and grabbed onto her clenched fist. Her blush went deeper, he must have known by now why her face was so red, that it was from more than her being angry.

"Shiki stop this please, you are not stupid, no matter what you say you are not. Don't go comparing yourself to some genius. This is pointless."

She unclenched her hands and looked into Neku's eyes. He was right, but she didn't want to believe in his words, for such idiotic reasons she wanted herself to be true. She felt like crying right now, not knowing why at all.

"Shut up Neku' she whispered dejectedly.

"I'm stupid and I'm ugly"

"No your not!" He interrupted.

'You are not stupid, and you are certainly not ugly. How many times do I have to say it?"

Shiki continued looking up into his eyes, She wanted those words to comfort her and take her out of her distraught mood. But still she wanted her to be right about it all, why did her mind have to work that way.

"Even if i'm not stupid, no matter what I am still ugly." She was declaring it, like it was impossible for her to be wrong.

"Shiki your not ugly"

"How can you lie like that?" She responded angrily.

Neku's grip tightned on her hand.

"How could you think I'm lying?"

"Because you must be, I am ugly, and nothing you can say will ever change that!" She was near screaming now.

"Stop all of this, what the hell is the point in insulting yourself? huh?" He was yelling back at her,

"Nothing you do will make me think that you're ugly, I could never think that, stop thinking such horrid thoughts!"

"Why should I deny the truth? I don't have to hide from what I already know!" She gave as her reply for his attempts at stoping the fight.

"What do you mean? What you already know? You mean what you think you know." He was refusing to agree with a thing she said.

"Your an idiot Neku!" She yelled in her anger before ripping her hand out of his grasp and turning to leave.

"Shiki!" He called to her.

"Shut up!" She stoped him before he could say more.

"Shiki!" He went after her, before she could react he grabbed her hand again and turned her around, she gasped but that was all that she got out before he pressed his lips against hers. She was shocked, her heart started beating fast, she felt a feeling that she wasn't use to.

When he let her go all she could was stare at him, her face had gone a far deeper red. She was confused over what just happened. she tried talking but found nothing coming out. Neku was the one to talk first.

"I, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that" He tilted his head, not looking at her face.

She could still feel her heart beating in a rapid speed. She was feeling strange, it wasn't from embarrassment only. Even if she had been denying it she couldn't lie that she did have some kind of feelings for him that went beyond those of friendship.

"I, didn't know you felt that way" It was true, but it made it sound like something bad had just happened.

He was still looking down, too embarrassed over the stupid thing he'd just done to a friend. Shiki was unsure what to do, to say something or turn around and leave. But she didn't know what to say, what would fix up this awkward moment. And she couldn't leave him standing there feeling like he had done something extremely wrong, when she didn't think it was so. Not to mention that she was still scared off being outside in the dark streets all by herself.

"You don't have to apologise" she finally got out.

He looked back up at her.

"Why?"

"You didn't do anything wrong" She didn't fully know where she was going with what she was saying.

"But I.." He didn't know what to say either, "kissing a friend is not really a good thing to do."

"I.." That was right, but did she want to be 'just' a friend?

Her confusion led her to start fiddling with her figures thinking of a solution to their current problem. It wasn't very easy, she had no idea of things to say in a pridicament such as this, she'd never been in anything similar.

Such an awkward moment they had landed themselves in. Never the less they persisted with thinking up ways to help fix things, despite constant failure over it.

Shiki was thinking of things, but she didn't think they would fix it, but would help to stop Neku from thinking he had just done something wrong. Walking up closer she kissed him softly on his lips, then lowering her head because of her continuous embarrassment over the situation they had put themselves in.

"You didn't do anything wrong" She barely got that sentence out, Her heart was beating so fast and her face was so red.

she could hear Neku breathing from how close she was to him, not like she'd never been that close before, it had happened plenty of times. But the situation was making it seem far different from all the other times. She tilted her head up to look at him. He was blushing too, which actually made her face go a deeper shade.

"I, still feel bad for it," He began, "We're friends after all, and I.." He was stuttering badly.

Shiki leaned her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around him, He was surprised that she wasn't still far too embarrassed and feeling so awkward that she was alright doing that.

"Do you want to be friends?" She whipered it softly, but clear enough for him to fully hear it.

He blushed and continued staring down at her for awhile longer,

"No"

* * *

><p>He didn't know how it ended up the way it did. From standing in the middle of the lounge room with their arms around each other, to something so much more. Neither had it in their heads that maybe what they were doing was wrong until what might have been hours afterwards, but it was too late they layed on Neku's bed in a loving embrace, Shiki had fallen asleep sometime ago, but Neku couldn't get himself to go to sleep. Should this have happened at all? Even if Shiki really didn't want to be just friends, this shouldn't have happened at this point in time. What people would think of it was also something on his mind, not like they would openly admit to it, but there was always the chance of someone finding out about it anyway ( the problem with knowing a person that can read your mind). They were both still young, that itself was enough reason that this shouldn't have happened. One thing for sure would be if their parents found out they would be dead.<p>

Neku forced himself to stop thinking about such things, they weren't important in this point in time, he could worry about them later. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>Neku woke up to rays of sunlight peeking in through his bedroom curtains, that was when he noticed Shiki talking, twisting over he saw her talking to someone on the phone, whoever it was they didn't seem to be happy with her.<p>

"No don't think that! It was closer and my glasses were broken, I couldn't have fixed them in the dark"

The other person's voice could be heard from the other end, it was loud but unclear, so the only thing Neku could figure out from it was that it was a woman.

"I'm sorry I didn't go home, but it was really late and it wouldn't have been very smart to go outside at that time of night"

The other voice was still talking in a loud tone, but not as enraged as before.

"Um, ok, " Shiki said before the call ended.

She turned her gaze from forward to over to Neku to see him awake. She blushed slightly before saying anything.

"That was my mum, She's pretty angry at me for not going home" She explained.

"I figured that out from the yelling"

"And I have to go home now or I'm grounded" She finished.

Neku sat up in the bed, "Now?"

"Yeah, now. Schools in a couple hours anyway, best be going. If I missed school my mum would be even more angry"

"She'd be more angry if she found out what happened here wouldn't she?" Pointing out the obvious.

Shiki blushed deeper and whacked him on the arm,

"Don't say it like that"

Neku rubbed his sore arm, "Theres not really a nicer way to say it is there?"

Shiki face was getting redder and redder. Neku pointing out the obvious was not helping in anyway. She got up out of bed and picked her clothes off the floor and put them back on, She still had the massive blush,

"Can you stop talking like that, it's kinda embarrassing"

"Fine, sorry" He apologised.

Shiki gave him a kiss before she had to leave. Neku got out of bed too and began getting ready himself.

* * *

><p>School passed by slowly. Neku didn't talk to Shiki that afternoon, She did call him, to say that Eri was forcing her to go shopping with her for new materials for the clothes she wanted to make. The next afternoon was when they got to talk again. Neku had spotted her talking with Rhyme,with Eri sticking with her like usual. They were having a conversation about school exams. Which from what he could make out, the reason that Rhyme was still hanging out with friends when she was suposed to be studying for her entrance exams was because she got it all done at school, as she didn't have friends that went there, the bad thing when you make friends with older people. Neku could do most of the studying he had to do at school for the same reason. Shiki and the others all went to a different school. Shiki was lucky enough to have Eri with her, they had all the same classes to add to that.<p>

Neku had been standing by himself for awhile before Shiki took notice he was anyway near them.

"Ah! Neku" She quickly went over to where he was still standing. From his point of view he saw the look of suspicion that appeared on Eri and Rhymes faces, to be honest he was tempted to do a mental facepalm.

"Hi, Shiki" He greeted as he stoped in front of him.

"There's something I want to talk to you about"

She didn't look very happy, but it wasn't a sad look either, so he couldn't be sure what she wanted exactly. Lucky there was so many people around or Eri and Rhyme might have been catching some of this, thanks to that the only people that could hear a thing wouldn't have paid attention anyway.

"What's it about?" He questioned in his curiosity.

"Not here, The two behind me are going ultra suspicous of me and it's getting creepy and annoying."

Neku took a look behind her to see that the two she was referring to were tilting their heads slightly to get a better look at them right now. He had gotten use to that behaivour from Eri, but why had Rhyme joined in?

"Um. Alright, somewhere else then" He agreed to leave.

just before they walked off the other two did walk right up to them, laughing between them, Rhyme was having an attempt at talking, but failing rather largely.

"Sorry, I figure you two are going somewhere but before you do, does this make sense, I got told this yesturday. ' you guessed right on the matter but the truth is higher than you aimed"

What the crap was that?

"I can guess from your faces it doesn't" She took a second and laughed at their confused expressions, then continued,

"It made perfect sense to me, and now I think I'm terrified" She began laughing harder before she went about leaving. Eri gave them a shrug showing she was just as confused, before following after her.

As they both dissappered from view they heard Rhyme near yell "And then I got told something evil, oh just wonderful",

After that they could no longer see them, they left the area themselves.

* * *

><p>Shiki didn't say anything more until she was sure that nobody else but her and Neku would hear.<p>

"I feel stupid for even wanting to say this" She sounded sad, her head was tilting downwards, so as to not look Neku fully in the face.

"What is it?" Something about the way Shiki was acting gave him a bad feeling.

She bit her lip and looked to the side, trying to avoid what she was planing to say.

"Shiki what is it?" Neku was getting impateint.

Shiki covered her face with her hands, she sounded like she was about to cry. It was hurtful to see her like that.

"I'm sorry but.." She bit her lip harder, still averting her gaze. Whatever she was trying to say she was making it clear that even she didn't want to say it.

"Shiki are you alright?" Neku steped closer to her but was pushed back. She kept her arms up to stop him if he tried again.

"Don't!" She yelled it before she made another crying sound.

"Please" she said again but a whisper this time around.

Looking back up Neku could see that she was crying. She was against saying what she wanted to, but she wasn't leaving without having said it.

"Shiki, what is wrong?" He came close to yelling that himself.

"I"m going to sound like a bitch if say this" That came out more quiet than she'd wanted it, but it was still clear enough, but it further confused Neku about what ever was troubling her.

"Why, what is going on?"

She was having problems getting the words out of her mouth, she was really trying now, but now she couldn't even make a sound.

"God I'm sorry, but.." Her voice stopped halfway through. She was forcing herself so hard trying. Tears were running freely down her face by this point, making it harder again for her to talk.

"I can't be in a relationship with you"

"What?" He basically screamed it. "Why, what's wrong?" Why can't we?"

She tried stiffiling her cries, but it wasn't easy for her.

"I'm confused right now,alright" Her voice was filled with her sadness upon saying such things.

"I barely know if I really want to be with you, this can't work out." She choked back her tears

"What are you saying, if you don't want to be then why did you do such a thing with me? I never forced you."

'I just said I'm confused alright!" She screamed before he could say anymore, "I don't know what I want!"

Her eyes were red from crying by now, her arms were wrapped tightly around her, she couldn't look Neku in the face.

"God I'm stupid" She shook her head, and let more tears drip down her face.

"I'm such an ugly person aren't I?" She breathed.

"Shiki!" He grabbed her hands and stood close, " Shiki you're not ugly." He wanted so much to convince her.

She stared up into his eyes, he was crying now too, she was hurting him she knew, but she wasn't going back on her words.

"Love can make you say anything"

She ripped her hands out of his grasp, And ran away from him.

All he could do was watch as she dissappeared from sight.

* * *

><p><strong>I flipped when I noticed how this was over 7,200 words, it's my longest chapter yet, Hoorah. just saying, but the reason why I didn't descibe the scene between Neku and Shiki (you know what I mean) Is because, i don't really want to write a scene like that, it's not that they bother me, but my crappy writing if i did attempt it would. also I'm trying to keep this as rated T. Because I have other stories that I want to do more on, I've decided, that unless this story becomes popular, I'm not going to continue it. so it shall stay as a one short. but if it does, i will keep on it, but not for awhile. I will finish depression and write somemore of my others so they are all at least five chapters. so for the people that do read this, thank you and lets just hope that someday it can be compleated, because i quite like this.<strong>

**Reviews shall be much appreciated, arigatou gozaimasu**


	2. Crack in the wall

**(4,150 words) I got my laptop back! why am I saying this? You guys have no idea what I'm talking about, Well quick explanation, my four month old laptop broke. so I had to wait two months to get it back. It was annoying. It's still broken. Well looks like HP owes me and my sister a new laptop now. Fun.**

**I was really happy with the hits I got for the first chapter, it didn't even reach two hundred but I was still getting them each month and I wrote the last chapter in january. **

**Hated my writing in the first one, I didn't when I wrote it but I re-read it before writing this and was like 'Wow this is crap'. So it inspired me to do a better job on this one, and I'd have to say I sure did. I usually hate all my writing, something must be wrong here...**

**well anyway, enjoy me pretties!**

**Disclaimer: If wearing that makeshift Shiki cosplay didn't make me Shiki then writing this don't mean I own TWEWY.**

* * *

><p><strong>2) Crack in the wall<strong>

* * *

><p>The grey clouds above threatened rain and the exhaust from the cars passing noisily by drifted up slowly, adding more grey to the already bland surroundings of the streets of Shibuya. The morning was so blank, nobody in some kind of colourful outfit, most all cars close to black.<p>

Neku stood at the street side, passing time until the bus arrived. He had his old headphones on and had the music blaring. It was used to ignore the voices of others, but even the music in all its loudness was falling on deaf ears. His mind was racing over what had happened last time he and Shiki talked.

It'd hurt him, it'd hurt her as well, but she was being too stubborn to admit to the pain; but he saw it in her eyes each time they passed. He knew what they'd done on that night maybe shouldn't have happened at all, he didn't know what he was thinking at the time, he knew it'd transpired way too fast. But it had made him realise his feelings for her were more than that of a friend. She'd been his first friend, and the first he had felt this way for, he hadn't a clue about it all until the hidden emotions overtook his thoughts and actions and forced him to see the truth.

There and then he knew it was the same for her, so what had caused her to change her thoughts and tell him she didn't want them to be together? Even with her the way she was it couldn't be possible that she was paranoid enough to think their friends would judge them for it. The group had always known they were close; it wouldn't be hard for their feelings to change considering the time they spent together. Was it that trip to Europe she and Eri were going on? Did she not want to have to have a boyfriend when she knew that an entire ocean was between them?

She wouldn't be there forever, and if it ended up being a long time, they could work it out. Somehow they would, they had been through worse together.

The bus pulled up, its bright yellow paint and obnoxious giant advertisements blocked all else from view. The gravel kicked up on the side of the road as it took its stop. Neku pushed past the others trying to get on as the door first opened. That way he could get away from the majority of the crowd and have a better chance of getting a seat if he was first on.

He was lucky enough to land one near the back next to an elderly woman with large white framed glasses hanging on the edge of her nose; the worn book in her wrinkly hands took up a great part of her interest ad he was virtually ignored as he took the seat by her side. Neku took off his headphones and placed them in his bag, hiding them under what little it contained. Everyone knew he only used them when something was up, and he wanted the masquerade that all was fine to continue for as long as it could. He laid his head on the tattered blue of the seat and looked to the side, not enough so that the woman might mistake that he was watching her, but enough that he still had a good view out the window.

She did however for a minute become stuck at staring at his bright messy hair, which he hadn't been bothered enough to brush this morning, like most did if this was their first time seeing him. Well it was unusual for sure, just sometimes the looks got irritating. The woman may have been more polite than others and took her eyes away and back to her book after a short amount of time passing.

Neku gazed out the window, hoping that maybe, as even his music failed this time, getting caught up by the sight of his surroundings could (though this was hoping for a miracle) take his mind off things. But as time went by, he found it was just that, hoping for a miracle. He'd thought about this far too much in the past weeks, but he had no idea what on earth to do.

Graduation had come and gone, Shiki and Eri were supposed to be leaving soon. Rhyme had said someone should throw a little 'goodbye party' for them. Eri had flipped upon hearing it and had forced everyone to make preparations for it. When he heard it, he hadn't wanted to go; he didn't want to have to face Shiki. No one had been told about what happened between them. The others already suspected something was up; having them both stuck together and obviously acting different towards each other was just going to make those suspicions pique.

He sighed at the thought, attracting a look or two from the follow passengers. This was too much for him, what was he going to do? He just wished he had some kind of an idea about that.

He was heading to Eri's house at the moment because that was where they party had been decided to be held at. Shiki's place was too small and Beat and Rhyme's place was out because their parents had been dead against having a party held in their apartment. Eri's parents would both be out at work by this time of day already, even if it was still pretty early.

Maybe he could just try to forget that night, and that argument. It would be near impossible, but he was going to force himself to, even if his mind was utterly against the thought in itself. No one needed to know, it could just be a moment to lose itself in the past.

But one question didn't want to leave him alone; what could have changed in the time of less than two days that would make her let him make love to her than to her deciding they just couldn't be?

…

When the bus came to a stop, Neku waited for anyone else getting off before making a move for the door, avoiding the crowd. When he jumped off the last step, a cold wind brushed past his face sending shivers down his spine. He zipped up his blue jacket all the way up and adjusted his clothes to make them cover as much as possible. The temperature had come down during the bus ride. The grey clouds loomed ever closer, deepened to an ominous black. There was going to be one hell of a storm soon. He knew then it was best to hurry, he was frozen to the bone already and all he felt was the wind flowing by.

As he walked the well-known concrete path, the hoard of people rushing along pushed and shoved him hurrying to their destination. He didn't mind, it was all the usual for a busy day in Shibuya, the roaring cars and stink of petrol to his side were more agitating than that ever could be, and he couldn't care less about that either. The traffic was a normal part of life in the city; he didn't even know what this place would be without it.

His pace was hasty as he headed in the direction of Eri's apartment. A part of him wanted to go, and the other half wanted to run away. They were his friends, of course he'd want to see them; but all that'd happened lately was too much. His inexperience in such matters had just made it all that much worse, he cursed the day when he'd reluctantly agreed to come to the party. But after all, he was trying to hide the pain and hurt that day had left him, same for Shiki. They didn't want anyone to know, and that was that.

Why burden them with something that wasn't any of their damn business?

Neku waited at the lights for them to go red so he could cross the street which would lead him onto the one directly on the path to Eri's flat. He found himself whistling a tune, from a song heard previously in the day firmly stuck in his head. His head leaned against a pole and he twiddled his fingers on it, it clanged and was like a piece of ice against his already cold face, but he didn't care.

The cars stopped and the crowd around him poured onto the street moving briskly to the other side, he followed in their footsteps, doing his best not to be pushed around again. But in this city it got hard on days like this. The pedestrians, in fear of the impending storm, were hurrying home or to their destinations at a faster pace. He too walked faster than he'd originally intended but not at the pace everyone chose to. He didn't want to be caught up in the rain but at the same time feared having to face Shiki again, where he knew he had no choice but to talk with her, at least once. He still felt an averseness that he knew wasn't going to leave.

His feet touched the concrete path and half the people that surrounded him walked off in the opposite directions scattering like bugs. He himself headed forward, as to his destination. For the last part of the walk at least, he could take part of his mind out of his secret problem and let it concentrate on staying warm. The wind spun harshly around his form, biting at each piece of bare skin it could reach. And as if to curse his bad luck of already being stuck in this horrid weather, the clouds holding up the rain could no longer do the task and it poured down on him and every person in the neighbouring area. He bit his lip at the first droplet to land on bare skin. It was worse than the snapping wind. He quickened his steps and pulled up his jacket's hood over his mess of orange hair, his hands wrapped around himself to stay dryer and keep himself as warm as possible. Instinct told him to run but he knew that in the end most likely, as he still had a way to walk, leave him being even more wet.

Lightning and thunder roared over the horizon, and he had to hope, that maybe, the weather would lighten up for at least some part of his remaining walk. But, even that, was just a hope. And from the looks of the dark clouds above, it was going to get worse before it ever got better.

…

Neku shook the drops of water off of him as he got under the cover of the apartment building's roof. An elderly couple eyed him from the aged red leather seat on the other side of the room, next to a wall sized window giving a nice clear view of the pelting rain.

He got here right before it really started pouring down; the drops fell so fast and heavy that the scene outside the window was painted grey. Oh just like my god damn emotions right now, he mentally sniggered. He would have slapped himself if he didn't have others eyes on him, he couldn't let himself get angry about this right now, not if he wanted to hide what happened from the others. He just hoped that Shiki could hide her feelings on seeing him while the party was going on. For sure she wanted it to be hidden just as much as he did.

He took the elevator, as Eri's place was halfway up the building and in no way would he dare take the stairs after walking through all that bad weather. The metal walls were a light grey and brown on the edges. A repetitive obnoxious tune played as the elevator made its way up, as annoying as it was this moment was still one kept quiet enough to give him time for his mind to have a moment of peace.

Thanks to the happenings of late he found slowly everything was beginning to bother him. It was the littlest of things, from the sound of a dogs bark to the high pitched laughter from a group of over-exited school girls. He could barely explain why that was so, it just was. He was so bloody confused at the moment, he didn't know what to do and if he could he would go and run off never to return. He felt so stupid for feeling so irritated, and it was made worse from his attempts to keep it all inside, he felt like any second now he would explode. He hoped to god he wasn't going back to his old self because of this, even he hated who he used to be.

The silence gave him momentary calmness; he didn't have to worry about the hustle and bustle of the outside world even if it only lasted for a minute in all. Cold hands, still partly wet straightened out locks of his hair, he must've looked like a mess. He was starting to develop patches under his eyes from lack of rest, and his hair was knotty from a night of rolling sleeplessly around a bed. He could try and blame it on being caught up in that storm, but he was just too much of a mess for that.

The doors opened wide with an insufferable 'Ding' to the hazel-brown walled corridor, with his mind in a trance like state he stepped out and almost hit Eri smack-bam in the face. Two surprised faces stared at each other stupidly for a second before Neku did the smart thing and sidestepped to avoid her, and also to get out of the elevator before it closed on his face.

"Probably not so smart to stand right in front of an elevator door next time, hah?" He tried to joke. He didn't know if Eri saw through his little façade, and if she did she didn't say it, instead she chose to go along with it.

She folded her arms loosely behind her back with a cheery smirk. "I'll keep that in mind then. Almost hit me there, where on earth did your mind go just then?"

To somewhere you'll never need to know. But he couldn't say that, after all, she didn't need to know, so he settled with. "Um, somewhere?" He replied dumbly.

The girl eyed him suspiciously for a minute, but then dropped the look and put the smile back on her pretty features. She took a step towards and ruffled his untidy hair, beaming cheekily. "And you got caught in the rain, how nice." She laughed and strode past him, reddish ponytail bouncing. She knew his mind was thinking about something serious. Both him and Shiki were acting differently, especially to each other, when best friends suddenly didn't speak then something had to be up. But it wasn't her place to pry, if her own best friend wouldn't tell her how did she expect to get it from someone who she was only friends with thanks to a friend in common? So she stayed quiet on her part, even if it meant having idiotic conversations to fill in the spaces, she'd do it, for their sake. It seemed to be something they had to fix up by themselves.

"Come on kitty everyone's there already." She skipped all the way back to the apartment. Ignoring him when he asked what was with the 'kitty' remark. Well it was his fault that his name sounded like a cat.

If anything Neku felt worse at seeing Eri's happy actions, she was so blissfully unaware of what he was going through, not like he wanted her to know. But seeing people being joyful when he felt like crap just further showed him how bad his current emotions were. And it made them, as hard as it was, worse.

He followed her along the hallway, keeping at a reasonable pace behind her prancing self. He understood why she would be feeling so happy at the moment, but the skipping just seemed over board, wasn't she eighteen? They reached the door in a minute or two, Eri now making giggling noises to herself. It bordered on the annoying.

She grabbed his arm tightly as she swung open the door, looking as happy as ever. She dragged him through the entrance, not seeing him almost trip over, as he fixed himself up before she turned back towards him. He could hear the others from here but his sight was blocked at this position.

Eri had a broad smile on her face, she was laughing a little but was doing her best to hold it in. "How tired are you right now!" She burst out suddenly. Did she have to be so loud?

"I would have no idea; I just had a little trouble getting to sleep last night." He pulled away from her grip; he couldn't stand being near her when she was being that loud. His hearing wasn't brilliant (blame excessive headphone use) but it still hurt when a screaming girl yelled in your ear.

"Really? Cause you look more tired than it being one night." She crossed her arms, and gave him a scrutinising look. He had to hide his shock at her asking the question straight-out, a feeling like he'd been caught out hit him.

Her expression changed to its opposite; with the unexpected sad emotion shining out of her eyes.

"Shiki's been tired lately," She paused and shrugged with a sad smile, "but that's partly my fault, I've been ringing her up at crazy hours since we first got the chance for this trip." She made another pause and looked at him deeply; he had to force himself not to look away under the dejected stare she gave him.

"Did something happen between you two?"

He felt like he'd frozen, should he answer that? She was important to Shiki, they were very close, but should he say it? Finally he failed at looking her in the eye and lowered his gaze diagonally to the floor. The second he did he heard her sigh outwardly. Looking back up at her she smiled at him with the same sad look.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to; I didn't get anything from her either." She sighed, squeezing her arms slightly, but that was her only outward show of annoyance. She shook her head and forced out the negativity, replacing the sad look with the smile that had left.

"Ah, never mind. Best not talk about it if it's nothing good right?" She grinned and stepped back, leaving Neku to stare. He was glad she'd dropped it but now he felt bad at trying to hide it. It was pretty clear they were all aware something was up; it made a pang of hurt hit him knowing he was trying to lie about something so obvious to his close friends.

Eri turned around, a smile which may as well be fake now planted on her face. At the end of the tiny hallway at the apartment's entrance she almost ran into Rhyme who had suddenly appeared at the start. She jumped back quickly before their heads collided. Rhyme burst out laughing with a broad smile on her face, "Close call there hah?"

The older girl folded her arms with the fake smile ever present, "It was worse before, almost hit Neku because I was stupid enough to stand too close to an elevator." She chuckled.

"Neku?" Rhyme tilted her head past the girl standing directly in front of her to see the boy watching them blankly in silence.

Neku noted she was wearing rather boyish clothes at the moment, thanks to her mother that was getting harder but she was finding ways around it. The dull orange tank top wasn't very much, but that was outnumbered by the brown shorts and grey converses knotted loosely. Topping that off with the white jacket, that was most likely actually boy's clothes from the looks of it and the same black beanie she almost always wore. With her hair tied up into a high ponytail and half tucked into the bottom of the tattered beanie, it would take a second to even notice she was a girl.

"Didn't see you there." She stated idiotically. She smiled for one second at him before standing up straight to look at Eri properly, a short conversation passed between them, too quiet for him to hear. He couldn't see Eri's expression as her back was turned but Rhyme's was easy to see, she looked serious. What were they going on about? And why did they have to make themselves so quiet? Why didn't they want him to know?

He caught Rhyme saying, "Got the same." And they pulled apart and Rhyme walked out of view. Eri looked back at him meeting with his curious eyes; her smile was gone for less than an instant before she put it back on.

"Come on, ain't going to stand there all day are you?"

He looked blank for a second longer before silently nodding and following her out of the hallway to where the others were.

…

The lounge room was small, containing one three seater couch and one smaller chair in the corner close to the TV. Beat had taken the chair and was engrossed watching the movie on the TV while Shiki and Rhyme sat on the larger couch, Rhyme quickly having restarted a conversation with her.

Shiki had been laughing quietly over what the chat was about, but Neku, from coming in mid-sentence, didn't understand it properly. She was happy in that moment but that ended when she saw him walk in.

She momentarily froze in shock as she saw him, but then forced herself to calm down, visibly at least, knowing that the others would suspect something was up if she acted that way considering she knew he was coming.

Eri twisted her head back to him for a second; giving him the sad smile she'd given him before. It felt like a knowing smile, but he knew she didn't know what had occurred between them; if she did she wouldn't she have asked.

Turning away from him Eri changed her expression back to happy and gave Shiki a playful whack, giggling childishly, "Jeez, girl how tired are you? What's with that face?"

Shiki rubbed the space, with the small red mark Eri had given her. "Very, now whose fault do you think that is?"

"Yours for not sleeping." The red head flung herself down on the couch beside her, she knew where her friend had been going with that but she decided instead to give a wrong answer and act oblivious to the obvious.

"Wha?" Shiki looked at her with a puzzled look over the stupidity of the answer, but didn't receive a reply.

Neku was trying to keep his mind off what'd Shiki had said those weeks ago to him, but having to be stuck in the same room as her made it hard. And what the hell was with Eri blaming her for being tired? Wasn't she the one that said it was her fault only a moment before?

Or maybe it was Shiki's own fault that she was tired, hell she was the reason he was right now. Surely what she'd done was bothering her just the same as it was with him. Even if Eri hadn't been ringing her up at insane hours she wouldn't have gotten to sleep anyway. Eri suspected something was up between them, everyone else probably did too; maybe she honestly did think that it was what had happened between them that kept Shiki awake.

Shaking the thought from his mind he hopped up onto the arm of the couch on Rhyme's side. Eri and Shiki were having a less than smart conversation thanks to Eri turning right back into her usual cheery self, Rhyme was trying not to laugh and Beat was yelling at the TV.

It wasn't much of a party but that didn't matter, having his friends there was what counted. But if only he could reverse the past, he knew things could never be the same between him and Shiki again.

Shiki for a second only let her eyes wander over to him before turning them back to Eri to concentrate on what she was saying only. Being tired was the least of her worries, not when she knew the girl next to her was suspicious to an extreme and she knew she couldn't dodge the questions forever.

This was too much, she was making herself sick. Literally.

* * *

><p><strong>Well this was originally going to be longer, but I cut it off because I was getting bored. Got the attention span of a two year old you see, that's why I'm writing eight stories at once.<strong>

**Hopefully that better description I gave to this story is going to help it gain popularity, but I'm not going to try and get my hopes up.**

**If anyone wants to be nice enough to review, you'll help that little paranoid voice in my head (Who I called Arianna) To shut the hell up! she's annoying!**

**Jya ne,**

**~Serah Villiers Vanlentine.**


	3. Fragment

**(1,731 words) Oh I'm sorry but this is very short, I was being lazy and personally I think what is in the next chapter goes better by itself. I'll try to ****make that one a good 5-7 thou long OK?**

**Heh heh. who's noticed that the picture for this is just a random picture of Shibuya? I was being lazy, or was I being smart?**

**And now this,**

**I CAUGHT THE MOTHERF**KING HYLIAN LOACH MOTHERF**KER! 35 POUNDS! FULL SIZE!**

**No that never happened no never, how dare you accuse me of so!**

**I don't like this chapter, I'll try to not only make the other one longer but its writing better as well. **

**Disclaimer: Just because this took over my whole mind and I was stuck thinking about Shibuya non-stop last January does not mean I own this. Note to self, have a shopping spree in Shibuya. Note to self, get some money first you stupid moron.**

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><p><span>3) Fragment<span>

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><p>"Come on, hurry up or we'll miss our flight!" Eri yelled out to her friend, running around the apartment collecting up all her luggage last minute.<p>

"I'm already done silly, it's you that's not." Shiki replied from her place on a chair in the minuscule kitchen. She had her short hair tied into a bun with a couple strands lose on the right; it had been an accident but Eri made her keep it like that, claiming it looked good. She had on a simple cherry red dress ending right above her knees and an auburn jacket decorated in cream coloured flower petals.

"Oh how nice of you, now where did that bag go?" Eri's form disappeared back into her bedroom.

"The black one?" Her friend asked enquiringly.

"Yes, the black one!" Her friend called back; from her one she was beginning to become annoyed.

"You realise it's next to the sink in the bathroom right?"

"Why on earth is it in there? What is with my mum sometimes?" She spotted her dashing out of the room and into the bathroom. She was mumbling about all the times her mother had moved her things to such weird places; it almost always caused her in the end to lose them. She came out calmer with her bag being held tightly in her arms in an almost protective manner. She set it down gently next to her other lot of bags and kept her hands near it like it was a child ready to run off any second now. She stood up fully then and in her head did a check of everything, just in case something was forgotten. She turned to do the same to Shiki's; even if she could guess her friend had already made sure she had it all.

With that down she twisted her full body around and gave her friend a cheeky smile. The fabric of her white and blue dress spun with the movement. Eri always managed to look prettier than her, no matter what she wore. Even if she cut her hair short (which really in no way would ever fit her) she could still look more beautiful. It was a thought that had always existed in Shiki's mind, only in the last few years it was one that bothered her less and less. If she put the thought of her being 'ugly' in her head, it wasn't because of her physical appearance anymore; it was how she was on the inside. She'd been fine for a while, but lately those thoughts came back, haunting her dreams so bad she'd lost the ability to sleep.

"Are you going to be alright?" Eri cut through her thoughts with a simple question.

"Hmm?" She blinked in surprise, her mind had near made her forget she'd been there as it slowly drifted down to things it needn't go.

"You look tired." She announced the obvious.

"I can sleep on the plane; I'm more worried about feeling sick than tired," she admitted; well it wasn't every day you got to go to another country. Who wouldn't panic a little inside?

Eri put her hands on her hips and thought for a moment. "You're probably just excited; it should leave awhile after we get there." Shiki did not miss that little smirk that popped on her face.

"Now I gotta go wake my dad up so he can drive us to the airport, wait here for a second darling." She smiled and dashed out the room.

Shiki sighed; maybe she was just excited; she shouldn't be thinking into it that much.

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><p>They arrived and Eri gave her dad a hug goodbye before they entered the double glass doors of the airport. To say it was crowded was an understatement, people everywhere dashed about hurrying to here and there all over the place. Eri grabbed onto her friend's hand so they wouldn't get separated. That was always a fear that people would have first time they came here, even if it be slightly irrational.<p>

When everything was organised they had to take a seat at a line of red and white chairs as it was still ten minutes before the plane would be arriving. So Eri's earlier panicking had been unneeded. She had sighed a massive sigh of relief at the knowledge; glad she wouldn't be needing to panic any time soon.

"I just have to go to the bathroom, there's one over there. I'll be quick OK?" she told Shiki and ran off in the direction she'd pointed to, disappearing into the horde of people and leaving her friend alone in a matter of seconds. She laid back in the chair, lowering her position; it creaked loudly. She was so tired, feeling sick was not helping her at all. She guessed it could be the current happenings, but she really wished it would stop. Of course that thought could be completely wrong and it could be what she'd done to Neku a couple weeks ago. Not like she'd let that slip out; Eri didn't need to know, no one else needed to know. It was going to become a memory best forgetting and that was that.

What was wrong with her? She knew she had feelings for him; maybe it was strange because he was a friend, but they were there, that she could not deny. So why had she said what she'd said? What on earth made her say it? Even she didn't know. At first the thought of being with him didn't bother her at all, but the thought disappeared just as fast as it had come into existence, and she didn't want it anymore. Did she have to make it sound so harsh then; maybe, maybe not? It hadn't been right, but if she hadn't made it sound like she was almost repulsed by the thought of being with him in that kind of way, he wouldn't have given up. He did have a stubborn streak within him after all, that could come out at the worst of times.

"Shiki!" Eri called out to disrupt her thoughts. She knew it wasn't going to be the last time today.

Eri got back to her in a huff right about the time the passengers were beginning to board the plane.

"Ready?" She cheerily asked.

"Of course." She smiled back; it was faked, but at least she was smiling.

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><p>When they had gotten onto the plane they quickly found their seats and sat down, they were covered in blue-green fabric and felt very soft. Off to the left a baby could be heard crying but neither put much notice to it because Eri had gone into non-stop talking, while Shiki laid her head down on the seat to try and catch some rest. The flight would take hours, and she had plenty of sleep to catch up on. She knew her friend was talking but she was close to blanking out on it.<p>

She was excited to say the least, it was like she'd been given 21.5 cups of coffee in one go. They were going to France; Eri had always wanted to go there. They'd one of competition of sorts, a fashion related one if that hadn't been obvious enough. Eri had been through the roof when she found out they'd won.

Everything she was saying was France this, France that; more than likely the others stuck with them for the flight were going to get extremely sick of it, if they weren't already. A part of her was thankful that her tired mind was making it fall on deaf ears. Of course that that didn't last forever, a certain comment irrelevant to all the others she had made today caught her attention, maybe she'd intended for it to be like that.

"Hey Shiki? Did you and Neku get into a fight?" Her shocked gaze snapped up into the waiting eyes of Eri, whose own were filling with innocent curiosity.

Her stare was almost blank, different voices in her head fought for supremacy to get the answer out first.

"Why do you ask?" she tried to sound bemused, she didn't want to let her swirling emotions out.

She wasn't surprised by the look she was given back, it was almost filled to the brim with confusion and question. "You have been acting so weird lately, and neither of you can sleep. Something is up, you can't lie about that." She was speaking with a serious edge to her voice, so strong it sounded like she was angry.

Shiki forced out a laugh and it came out shaky and worried. She mentally scolded herself for it; it showed ever so clearly she was being heavily bothered by something. It sounded pained.

"Nothing happened alright, you're going overboard!" She tried to sound convincing, but they had been friends for too long for Eri to fall for such an obvious trick.

"Don't lie." She hardened her gaze and Shiki had to resist the urge to shiver from it. Now she was angry. "I know you and I know him at least to a degree, something is up. Tell me or I swear I'll hit you if you keep this up!" She yelled the last part, the passengers nearby gave her looks.

Shiki flinched; jeez, why was she lying? Eri was her best friend; she was starting to feel worse and worse from this. She wanted to say it; she truly did, but not all of it. Never all of it.

"Fine we got into an argument alright? Is that enough of an answer!" She yelled back and this time it was her who got the attention of fellow passengers.

Eri rested her head fully against the seat's head with an accomplished smirk. "Why yes it is thank you very much. Now I think you have some sleep you need to catch up on am I right?" She inquired with a laugh.

Shiki responded with a frustrated sigh and laid back down properly. During that small argument she had shifted her position like Eri had so they'd been facing each other. She closed her eyes with the intention of sleep.

She felt like a load had been lifted off her chest, not all of it, but some and that was a start. Sadly she still felt just as sick as ever.

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><p><strong>And done, now I have to go do my assingment because I didn't do anything yesterday. <strong>

**Have to get it out of the way so I can write the next chap for Wings. Heeey, fans? Could you be a good puppy and read Wings? I'll give you cookies...**

**No I was not bribing you! How could you even think that!**

**Review and I'll give you a hylian loach to keep as a pet. They're fun. Just be careful or they'll eat you in your dreams.**

**Jya ne!**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


	4. Shatter

**(3,522 words) Is it weird that MS word had shiki in its dictionary, but not Eri; and this has Eri in its dictionary but not Shiki? Just saying.**

**I don't know what I'm doing with this story, I want to finish it, so I will, but I may not write it very well because I'm not very inspired to write it any more. My sincere apologies, also I've cut out so much it may have about only six or seven chapters. So it's actually almost over.**

**My beta hasn't gone through because of computer problems, and the next update won't be for at least two months because I'm giving myself a well needed break. Writers block, sorry.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned this I wouldn't put it on fan fiction**

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><p><span>4) Shatter<span>

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><p>"Shiki!" Eri whispered into her snoozing friend's ear, when she made no response she spoke louder,<p>

"Shiki, Wake up!" She cupped her hands around her mouth and raised her voice to near a yell.

Shiki woke up instantly, flinching sideways to get away from Eri's loud voice, and hit her head against the side of the plane.

"Ah! Eri what was that for!?" She rubbed her sore forehead frowning at her grinning friend.

"The plane's about to land silly!" She laughed a mite too loud and attracted a more than a few looks from fellow passengers.

Shiki continued rubbing her head, "Thanks for telling me that, but did you have to yell?"

"Hmm." Eri put a finger to her lips in thought, "Well you didn't listen the first ten times."

"Eh! First ten times! How deep did I fall asleep!?" She gasped as it dawned on her.

"Must have been a lot from the looks of things." Eri mumbled then let a grin fall in place upon her lips.

"But who cares, we're here and that's what matters." She beamed happily.

And despite the depressed emotions that had been plaguing her, Shiki couldn't help but smile back.

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><p>The plane landed not long after her rude awakening, and Shiki tried to seem as excited as her friend. Of course she was excited to be in a different country, but amid all her tiredness and dejected emotions of current, it was hard to fully feel feelings of happiness.<p>

Eri's smile was from the looks of things, permanently stuck on her face, and she was giggling non-stop. Shiki tried to join in with her, she really did try, but the attempt failed in the end. She was glad that at least she managed a smile. It was a start to stop all Eri's worrying, she didn't have a way to actually make her stop, she was a good friend who wanted to be there for her; it wasn't a possible thing to accomplice. She could make a start on making her believe she was right again, by putting on the smiles.

Not having to be near the person whose fault it was that she like this in the first place, was a big help. It was much easier faking her emotions when it was only one person anyway.

Shiki found herself into a half trance for a good amount of time, Eri was constantly talking to her, but her ears managed to turn deaf on most of it, she blamed it on being tired, she hadn't been able to keep a good concentration on anything at all lately. Shiki was being dragged around by her friend, who not like she would comment was well aware that considering her friend's mind was in such a place, she mightn't notice if they got separated until a really bad time. So Eri had taken hold of her and dragged her along to where they needed to go. When she started really worrying about where her mind might be she decided to make another attempt at a conversation, hoping that this time it'd get her attention.

"Hey, Shiki, have you ever feared that you would like go to an airport and when you get off the plane, you'd pick up the wrong bag but then you wouldn't notice you had the wrong bag until, like, you got to the hotel?" She asked, having a go at breaking through her trance.

"Huh?" She almost jumped, acting like she hadn't noticed her friend had been there; Eri failed to stop a laugh leave her mouth, she had that reaction even when Eri had held her arm so tightly.

Shiki blinked and rubbed her eyes, she had a feeling that'd she'd just fallen asleep standing up. She hadn't heard anything for a while until Eri's question, which had an odd subject she thought, until she noticed it must have been the first thing that came to her head considering that there an uncountable number of bags and suitcases in front of her. _Oh she's waiting for ours to come.  
><em>

"Not really, I've always feared getting separated. I remember the first time I was on a plane, I was really young and with my parents. I clung to my mum the whole time, even when we were on the plane." Shiki answered. In the corner of her eye she saw Eri do a little victory dance because she'd finally gotten a reaction out of her.

"Yes!...Uh...I mean…you really wouldn't worry about that? I so would, I mean I don't want to lose my bag, all my clothes and make-up is in there. Sure the make-up can be easily replaced, but I made those clothes no way in hell would I want to lose them! And it'd suck for the other person because then they'd lose their stuff. Seriously it's just horrible all round!"

Shiki let out a small laugh, which again from the corner of her eye she saw Eri smile. To her it must seem like a sign of her getting better, it wasn't. She just had always liked when the other girl got like that, it was funny.

"I'll agree to that then, it would be horrible all round. But still, separation is much scarier." Shiki said simply, but Eri may have not noticed it.

"Hey I can see our stuff, just wait a sec." She yelled before disappearing into the bustling crowd, she came back dragging their luggage behind her. "Back!" She giggled.

Shiki found herself laughing again, she was lucky to have Eri sometimes. Even back in the times when she had been so god damn jealous of her, she still had been a little ray of sunshine that could brighten anyone's day.

"So I see." She giggled as she took her suitcase from her friend.

Eri pulled hers in front of her and turned it on its side, Shiki was just about to question but before the words left her mouth Eri zipped open the bag's main compartment, to see if it indeed was hers.

_Wow, she really was scared of there being a mix-up!_

"Good, it's mine. You know you really should check yours just in case." Eri bored her eyes expectantly into Shiki's head.

"I think I'm right Eri, no need to worry…" She sighed; sometimes she could be edging on the ridiculous.

"Really?" She kept up,

"Yes Eri. Now are we going to go or what?" She asked to get her off the topic.

Eri jumped up excitedly with a cheerful smile gracing her lips.

"Good idea!" She giggled before yet again grabbing on Shiki's arm and pulling her along.

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><p>After being pulled around an airport and suffering through a long taxi ride, Shiki was finally able to crash on the hotel's bed.<p>

She was glad for it, she felt sick and exhausted after everything. The mattress was so soft she could sink into it, and then pillows were quite easily the softest things her head had ever got to touch. Eri was going on and on about things they could get the chance to do tomorrow, but her mind could barely make it out. And being as tired as she was, it wasn't long before she found herself drifting off into a deep and pleasant sleep for the first time in weeks.

When Eri finally came to notice that the person she was talking to couldn't hear a word she was saying, she laughed her head off at her stupidity for not noticing Shiki had fallen asleep. She sat down on the bed next to her, she'd love to go into her room and have a rest there, but she felt like being here for a bit longer. She smiled with a sad look in her eyes as she stared at Shiki's peaceful expression, she was glad she was sleeping so easily, she knew she hadn't lately. But simply being able to sleep wasn't going to fix her mood at all. She knew well that Shiki wouldn't be able to enjoy this as much as she could. As she'd been told her and Neku had gotten into some kind of fight, without a doubt that would be what would be on the top of her head the entire time. Fights between best friends were horrible, if neither tried to fix things, it'd really start to hurt.

"Are you ever going to tell me everything?" Eri mumbled dejectedly to her sleeping friend, "Or are you going to try to let it disappear into the past?" Of course, all her ears were greeted with after her questions was silence. So without a word, she got up off the bed and left the room, intent on having a well needed rest herself.

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><p>The coming days went fast, for Eri it was because of all her happiness and excitement, for Shiki it sheerly was because everything was rushing by her lately as her mind refused to concentrate on anything but the fight.<p>

Eri was trying to ignore it, but she knew Shiki better than anyone, it was more than just a 'little thing' that had gotten Shiki like this. She used to be weak, but she had gotten tougher and so it was much harder to bring her down these days than it had ben when they were kids. Something really bad must've happened, so much so that she wouldn't even tell her, her best friend since she was a kid!

Shiki did her best to feel happy during the trip, she really did. But she felt sick, she felt horrible; and knowing that Eri was fully aware of all her melancholy emotions just made it worse. She really should tell her what happened, but she was so scared when the thought was brought up, she'd lose the ability to talk. She couldn't stay silent forever; she knew Eri wouldn't give up trying to get the words from her mouth. When she wanted to know something, she would be the embodiment of stubborn just to hear it.

When she could part-way get the thoughts to leave the days were good; when she couldn't, the days were bad. During the trip Eri had taken her to visited a whole bunch of popular tourist attractions and other places all around the city. She had probably taken her to a million and one cafes; they were cheaper than the clothing stores here. Eri would've loved to buy everything she saw, but with such limited money that 'everything' got cut down to food. So when she walked by a clothes store she'd window shop in each for a good ten or so minutes adoring each single piece of clothing she saw like the fashion lover she was. Normally Shiki would join in, but she didn't feel like it.

Eri still bought plenty of different accessories to make up for all the fabulous clothes she couldn't afford. She did happen to buy a pretty red dress that she wore almost every day since buying it and a fashionable jacket.

The trip was going faster than she wanted, like everything did when you were enjoying yourself. But Shiki wasn't concerned about that, no not at all. She was worried about the day when Eri would get sick of all her moping and would pry the words from her lips. She wanted to know what happened, oh god she did.

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><p>Shiki collapsed on the bed letting out a sigh of relief. Eri had dragged her all around today, to all different places. She was exhausted beyond words and sleep was an idea she adored right now. The bed felt like the softest thing she'd ever touched after hours of walking and sitting in cold hard chairs that could never qualify as comfortable.<p>

Eri dumped her bags in her room before running back into Shiki's. How she could retain all that energy was beyond her, it just didn't seem possible. Then again it was near impossible to tire the girl out; people had tried many times, all failed.

"I would have to say best day yet right?" She giggled and jumped down on the bed next to her, the mattress depressed under her weight and made Shiki roll closer.

"Oi." She mumbled before pushing herself away.

"Sorry." She quickly apologised before propping herself up her on her arms with a bright smile present.

"Come on it was awesome right?" She questioned with a childish pout.

Shiki rolled her eyes and stifled a chuckle, "Yeah, but that ain't stopping me from being tired as hell. My back hurts and at some point I couldn't feel my legs." She groaned

Eri hopped off the bed and spun around on the ball of her feet.

"Okay I'm trying to ignore it but I'm sick of it. Something is up, and it's a lot more than a simple fight that's bothering you. I accept that part is at least true but more happened I know it did." She bored her eyes into Shiki's head, whose expression had turned to shock the moment Eri's tone deepened to one of obvious anger.

"W..what?" Was all she managed to say; Eri wasn't one to so suddenly flip out, not when she had been in such a good mood only seconds ago. Or maybe that had been a façade too?

"Shiki I'm being serious, it was more than a fight wasn't it? Tell me please!" She yelled angrily but in a begging tone all the same.

Shiki put on a fake look of confusion, she knew what she was really feeling was sheer shock, and that Eri wouldn't fall for the look she gave her too. But she hoped for a miracle none the less.

"Eri stop this, I already told you, we had a fight and that was that. Nothing more happened why can't you accept that?" She put emphasis on the last words as her tone became hurt. She knew that all her friend wanted was that truth and that she did deserve to hear it, but she was hurt knowing that her friend believed so strongly that she was lying to her.

"I know you're lying to me, stop it and tell me what else happened. For god's sake how did you guys even get into a fight in the first place?" She screamed and took a breath before she kept going, "You two have an amazing relation between you both, what on earth broke that? It was better than what we have! Not just anything would ruin it!"

Shiki averted her eyes as Eri just got louder; it hurt her too much to continue looking into those anguished eyes. She wasn't just angry about the lying; she had even been annoyed that she had seemed to be closer to him than to her now. She must have felt like she was slowly being shut out. No wonder she had wanted to go on this trip so badly, but than a fight ruined it, because she couldn't enjoy it at all when her mind was stuck on it.

"I'm sorry." Shiki mumbled as a tear fell down, all her emotions became too much for her to stand, Eri's current mood mode it all worse. She shot up and tried to leave the room but just as fast Eri grabbed onto her arm, so tightly that it hurt.

"Shiki, I don't want to yell at you." She returned her voice to normal, but now the pain was much clearer. She looked forward, not at her friend. "I just want to know what happened. Everyone knew you guys had a brilliant relationship; we were confused why all of a sudden you wouldn't even talk to each other, or go near each other. And worse you wouldn't even explain it to us. It hurt, but trust me we all wanted to keep quiet so you could fix it yourselves, but then that didn't happen-"

"Eri I'm really sorry!" Shiki interrupted her with a dejected voice, "It was my fault that stupid fight started anyway and.." She tried to go on but all the words got lost on the way to her mouth and all she could make was a sobbing sound and soon tears followed after it. Eri let go of her arm and watched in silence as her friend broke into tears.

"Shiki-"

"Do you think I'm ugly?" She asked wretchedly.

Eri's eyes opened wide, a mix of sadness and shock it her.

"Shiki, how dare you think that!? Why are you even saying that at a time like this?" She paused and bit her lip, then continued, "Did Neku call you-"

"No!" Shiki was quick to stop her, "No, he didn't! I did. He said the opposite…"

She didn't get to continue as Eri unexpectedly pulled her into a hug.

"Eri?"

"The fight, it was because something other than what friends would fight about right?" She whispered into her ear in an attempt of a comforting tone.

Even when she didn't want to, Shiki found herself nodding in response.

Eri smiled but she couldn't see it, "It's alright, I'm not surprised. You were close, we all knew that. It would never have been a surprise if you guys ever did become something more."

Shiki found herself nodding again, but when she tried to speak, nothing came out; nothing more but another sob.

"Shiki." Eri pulled away, but she put her hands on her friend's shoulders, staying close.

"Please tell me, what happened before the fight did? Whatever this thing was, it must have set it off right?"

Shiki shut her eyes to keep in another load of tears from falling; she shook her head, knowing that it was only half true.

"No, I was being stupid; even if it hadn't happened I probably would have done it anyway eventually. It just sped up the inevitable."

Eri nodded in understanding before pulling her friend into another hug, a comforting one. It must be really hurting her to make her say all this.

"What happened exactly, I want to know."

The moment the question left her lips Shiki broke out into tears again, they fell on her cheek.

"It was stupid, so god damn stupid. It shouldn't have happened at all."

"I'm not going to judge you, whatever you say. Keep that in mind."

Shiki nodded again slowly, she did want to tell her, but it was a struggle to get the words to her lips.

"I barely even know why it happened." She bit her lip as her ability to speak was lost again and the part of her mind that wanted so badly to tell Eri everything flipped out at her again.

"Whatever you did is something friends would never do right?" Eri whispered in her friend's ear. Shiki had the feeling she had already figured it all out. The tone she used made it obvious she was very sure of herself.

"Yes." She confirmed and was about to say more but Eri said straight out what she had thought,

"You had sex didn't you?"

Shiki winced at how straight forward it had been asked, and forcefully made herself nod yes. Eri hugged her tighter then let go.

She was smiling, not happily; it was obviously a go to comfort her friend.

"I wouldn't be a good friend if I decided to be mean to you over something like that. Like I said, I know you two had feelings for each other, and besides it's perfectly legal you are eighteen after all."

Shiki nodded, she felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from her chest, but no less sick.

"I still don't think it should have happened, it made that fight happen sooner." She mumbled, wiping away a tear threatening to fall.

Eri nodded, the fight wasn't her main concern at the moment, even though for Shiki it was.

"It was so stu-"

"Shiki" She interrupted her in a plain voice.

"Yes?" She questioned, noticing Eri's sudden look of worry, "What?"

Eri bit her lip, forcing out what she had to say.

"You didn't use protection did you?" She asked a mite shakily.

Shiki's stomach sunk the moment she realised where her friends was getting to, "No, we didn't. Not like either of us expected things to go that way…."

Eri fiddled with her fingers, again having to force out more she was uncomfortable with saying.

"Um, Shiki? What if you're pregnant?"

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><p><strong>Dun dun dunn!<strong>

**That was supposed to be in the second chapter, but whilst changing things around it got put in here instead.**

**Fun fact: If you're a writer/actor, don't dress up as your own character. Because you completely understand what goes about in their heads, you lose track of reality. I did that yesterday and creeped out my friend.**

**review and i give you cookie for helping me keep my sanity, bai bai!**

**~Serah Villiers V****alentine**


	5. The pieces

**(1,738 words) It's short because I can't** **write this anymore, I try so hard but I really don't know what I'm doing. So this is the last chapter, I'm leaving it with an open ending because it came into my head that way and I liked it. I like open endings, but that usually means sequels for most things and then the sequels suck. I'm not going to make a sequl, this is all it is. I hoped you enjoyed.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own TWEWY**

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><p><span>5) The Pieces<span>

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><p>Shiki was sitting on the ground with her back on the wall besides the bathroom door. It had been a couple days since she'd admitted to Eri what really happened between her and Neku, and what her friend had said to her really hit her hard.<p>

She was terrified it might be true when she began to think about it, but it wasn't like she had the symptoms or anything. Though when she thought about that her mind reminded her it was useless to think that as if she was she would not be much more than a month in, so she wouldn't be getting them even remotely near to the degrees you hear when women talk about their pregnancies. Apparently they're even women that never get morning sickness; it depended on the person themselves.

Her mind didn't know what to be thinking at the moment; since Eri had put it out there it had consumed her every waking minute. Her friend wasn't being annoyed by her behaviour anymore, now she was nothing more than concerned. Shiki couldn't do anything when the fear of her being pregnant wouldn't disappear.

She sighed and crawled into a smaller ball, she didn't cry, she didn't make a sound. Because even more so than before, she didn't' know what to do.

There was no reason to be angry at Eri for wanting to get some kind of proof that what she said was right or wrong.

But even so, when she lifted her arm, her stomach plummeted and she felt like breaking something, when she held the positive pregnancy test in front of her.

It blotted out everything in sight, all was black. She felt so sick, she'd gone into her own little shadowy world, she even failed to notice when Eri had entered the room. She'd left to get something, Shiki couldn't remember what. She probably knew her friend as going to spend an hour staring the test's container before gathering up the guts to do anything. She had been right on that part.

She froze when she spotted Shiki on the ground, it had nothing to do with where she was, but her expression, would've shown the truth. Eri could see it in her eyes that she'd gotten positive, she didn't get the answer when she kneeled down beside her and looked at it herself; those saddened eyes had been more than enough.

Eri wrapped her arms around her friend's shoulders, and cried in her place.

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><p>The holiday ended three days early. The plane trip back was somewhat calming in its own strange way, Shiki easily fell asleep on it, and in the blackness of her mind she didn't need to deal with what was going on in her life.<p>

Whenever she woke up Eri did her best to start up a conversation with her, surprisingly the attempts weren't failing as badly as they originally did. She guessed it was because having admitted to everything, Shiki felt like she was finding it easier to accept what had occurred and what currently was. It was the main topic on her mind, but it didn't consume every nook and cranny.

It would be a lie to say she was fine; she was scared out of her mind. But at least she admitted to herself this was happening and she wasn't trying to ignore it. Knowing this wasn't a secret she needed to hide from Eri made things better to, because she was there to offer a helping hand when it was needed.

When they got home Shiki told her parents about all that had happened first, they were surprised, but not to any kind of ridiculous degree. Her mother even admitted that she thought her and Neku had been going out, she just hadn't said a thing about her thoughts in case she did happen to be wrong. They were being supportive of her, which mad her happy, the moment she walked in the door she was scared they'd be angry. She thanked the lord that her parents were the type of people they were and not the bad kind. Any questions either of them had about what she and Eri had done on the holiday were completely forgotten as they were given a much more important topic to talk about.

Three days later she got in touch with Beat and Rhyme, and when she got to see them she told them about it almost right away. Beat was shocked, even he probably would've noticed how close they were, but from the silly way Rhyme and Eri had secretly been talking about their relationship he dropped the idea that anything would happen between them. Rhyme's expression hadn't even changed much when the truth had left Shiki's lips. She was a smart girl; it didn't take much for her to figure things out. Shiki had a sneaking suspicion that one of the things the girl had predicted about the problems with their relationship which may have happened could have been correct, like it had been with Eri.

In the minute where Eri was trying to get Beat to overcome his shock, Rhyme snuck up to Shiki, with a small smile on her face.

"When are you going to tell Neku?" She inquired curiously.

Shiki bit her lip, she didn't have trouble telling the others, but she knew she would with him. Was he still angry with her? He'd have to be hurt certainly, that last time she'd seen him before she's left; his eyes had been so full of pain.

"It's going to be hard for me to get the words out, but as soon I can get in touch." Shiki answered, twiddling nervously with her fingers.

Rhyme nodded and walked around her. "Well I know he's not at his house, and honestly I can't take a guess where he might be, but he probably has his phone on him."

"It's not the type of thing anyone should tell someone over the phone. It's way too important."

Rhyme grinned, "I never said for you to say it over the phone, I only said it so you can get in contact." She took out her phone and dialled a number.

Shiki blinked in surprise, and leaned over to see what she was doing.

"You're not planning on doing it yourself are you?" Shiki inquired taken aback.

Rhyme shook her head, "No I'd never think of doing that. But if he's still hurt he's not going to answer you're phone. Here." She handed Shiki hers.

Shiki nodded in understanding and walked into the closest bedroom for silence. Eri's and Beat's conversation had been getting louder.

She waited for a minute with the phone held at her ear, her hands slowly began shaking. Fear and anxiety settled in her stomach, but she knew she couldn't avoid this.

"Hello?" Neku answered, with a confused tone to his voice. Shiki kept in mind she was on Rhyme's phone; there wasn't really a reason for the girl to be calling him at this time. He was really going to be surprised when he heard her instead.

"Neku?"

The line was silent for a second, and then he yelled into the phone, "Shiki?"

Shiki took her ear away and winced, before putting it back and answering him. "Yes, I need to talk to you. Rhyme thought you wouldn't answer my calls so she gave me her phone." She explained, and waited another minute for him to reply.

His tone was calm, more so than she would've expected.

"What do you need to talk about?"

She swallowed the lump in her throat. She couldn't go and say it straight off, and if she did say what she needed to, and he came back to her, what if he only did it because it was the honourable thing? She wouldn't want that, or her mind would be convinced he was with her because he felt like he had to and not because he wanted to.

"It's two things really but, to start, I need say one thing." She paused as anxiety caused her to lose her voice. She shook her head and tried to keep it on topic.

"Neku, I am so sorry for what I said, I have no idea what I was thinking, I don't know what was wrong with me. Please, can you forgive me?" She begged, tears found their way down her cheeks.

Again the line went silent, she feared he had hung up, but she felt relief run over her when she heard him speak.

"Why did you do it?" He mumbled, even with her ear so close to the phone, she barely heard it.

"I don't know. I really don't, but it's hurting me and I don't want things to go badly between us. Can't things be like they used to be?" She pleaded, her tears beginning to fall faster.

"I don't think there'll ever be the same again. But," He paused, "I don't want them things to be bad between us either. I love you, and I don't want to be apart from you."

Despite her tears, Shiki felt herself smile. She'd gotten a yes on that, now she wouldn't be fearful of what else she had to say.

"Shiki?" Neku's voice broke through her thoughts, "You said there was something else you needed to say, what was it?"

Shiki breathed in deeply, to calm herself. "I don't think it's the kind of thing that should be said over the phone. We should meet up somewhere." She decided.

Again his curious voice spoke up, "Okay then, where?"

Shiki's smile broadened and she wiped the tears off her cheeks. There was a perfect place.

"How about the Hachiko statue?"

* * *

><p><strong>This is the second story I've ever finished, so please can someone review? Like someone who hasn't reviewed before? <strong>

**The first time I finished a story it didn't get any reviews, ever. it sucked and was a real let down. Which is why I never wrote a sequel for it. I"d just really like to know what you thought of it.**

**YES I KNOW YOU'RE ALL GOING TO IGNORE THIS!**

**Because everyone always does.**

**but, IF YOU HAVE A HEART PLEASE REVIEW!**

**Okay? **

**Sayonara,**

**~Serah Villiers Valentine**


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